Stories tagged “quest”
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Heroic Theft
I collapsed into my chair, exhausted from searching for my wife who went missing in the forest a week ago. I was fast losing hope. Then my front door opened. At first my heart lifted hoping to see her walk into the room. Instead, a large man wearing ar...
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The MacGuffin
Blondes. My weakness. There she was standing over me, with her sword at my throat. Not that I didn’t deserve to be in this position, not after what I had done. “Outlander,” she said quietly. “Where is it? What have ye done with ...
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The Terrible Quest
Death has his scythe. As for Fear, she throws snowballs. She has many guises, but suppose you are in a forest at dusk, and you see a young girl, perhaps eight years old, skipping playfully through the snow and between the twisted branches. You hear wol...
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Violence, Blood, and Money
Thus ushered in, Ryan and Peter followed the lumbering hulk of a figure down a narrow, dimly lit corridor, approaching ever closer to the glowing source of noise and odor. Peter just kept mumbling, “Bad idea, bad idea…” “Shh,...
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To Seek That Which Was Lost
The battered old car sweeps up to the door and an old man, presumably the owner of the property, emerges and pulls an overcoat from the back. He nods at me, and beckons me into the house. He pulls out a chair at the table for me before drawing a bottle...
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The Beginning of the Beginning
The greatest of journeys start with the smallest of steps. And so it came to pass, as we sat underneath the plastic canopy of the noodle cart permanently parked outside the college. My friend say happily enjoying his almost ritual bowl of wonton noodle...
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As Many Wontons As There Are Stars
Hao Shue rode the rockets into destiny, paying for the tickets by working ports or small jobs in cities. He hitchhiked the dynaflow freights or the FTL pleasure yachts preferred by the rich kids. You could would find him in some wayward corner of port ...
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Midori
For a while, life was great. I was retired, with a cushy pension. We travelled, though never off planet. When my wife died, everything changed. My friends were her friends; they faded away with pitying smiles. My children had no time for me. There is n...
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The Twilight of Our Years
The dropship perched upon one of the smaller floating mountains. I climbed down, fists thick with flowering vine. The going was precarious but my old bones were still vigorous. It was beautiful here at dusk, the stars a scrawl towards a purpling horizo...
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First Prong: The Magician
Lord Robert quickly summoned a foot messenger to hold the ferryman at shore. Disguising himself, he made his way toward Peat’s Bog. Tossing a heavy purse to the ferryman, Robert stepped onto a small floating island and poled across the acid-black...
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Just Another Night
Restless, I relentlessly seek intrigue at the bottom of a bottle…or two, or four. As the cigarette at the tip of my finger burns away, so too does my preference for what’s practical, normal, accepted as life as “we know it.” Con...
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Simple Request Regarding Natural Production
Jose leads the solemn procession of three out of the saloon, down a dusty street, and into the inferno of the desert. Though the sun dips low, the heat remains, even seems to grow. They plod stoicly forward, Tom a bewildered and semi-willing participan...